Good beer and growlers in Lincoln City

This past weekend we were camping at Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast for the annual family reunion, and while it wasn’t really a beer trip, we did stop in at Rusty Truck Brewing (filled a growler with Stupiphany), we had lunch one day up at the Pelican Pub & Brewery, I brought some cans of non-macro-brewed beers, and we discovered a new source for a great selection of good beer and a growler fill station in Lincoln City—at the Liquor Outlet on Highway 101 at the northern side of town.

The new growler and beer station is called “The Fridge” and it turns out that this particular liquor store is only “one of four stores selected as part of a statewide test program developed designed to modernize and improve customer service.” (Basically the OLCC is also trialing the sale of liquor in grocery stores; before this, between beer and wine, and hard liquor, never the twain shall meet.) To that end they’ve installed an impressive stock of beers (partnering with Bigfoot Beverage, it looks like) and installed the growler fill station.

They currently offer 12 taps of beer and cider, ranging in price from $11.99 to $14.99 for a 64-ounce fill, and the taplist they had when we visited (which you really can’t read in the picture) was:

Burnside Sweet Heat

Boneyard Skunk Ape IRA

Deschutes Armory XPA

Double Mountain Cluster

Ninkasi Little One

Boneyard Bone Light

Georgetown Lucille IPA

Worthy Eastside Pale Ale

Boneyard Hop Venom

2 Towns Ciderhouse Maid Marion

Boneyard Black 13

Mac & Jack’s African Amber

Interestingly, six of those 12 are from Bend (with Boneyard represented on fully one-third of their handles).

To my knowledge, there really aren’t any other sources of beer like this anywhere else in Lincoln City (the usual suspects show up at the grocery stores, of course) and I have to say I’m impressed with their growler fill setup: not as sophisticated as some of the more established stations (which is a weird thing to say about a niche that is barely a year old!) but it’s right in the center of the store, an island with six taps on either side and plenty open to sample, chat and fill.

Good beers on the shelves in the back, too—some 300 different beers, according to the OLCC page. I have to say, I never would have figured the local liquor store would be the source for this—but we were drawn in when we saw the “Growler Fills Now Available” on the banner when we drove by.

So if you’re on the Central Oregon Coast, check them out; they’re located at 2409 Highway 101, in between the IGA grocery store and Papa Murphy’s Pizza.